12/16/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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___ _ _ .,~,.w~..,..'... ,. _~.,..... Council Minutes of 12/16/2003 „:. Law Director Dubelko: 1) Over the last two weeks, he has attended numerous labor ~' ~~ negotiating sessions with the police, fire, NOMBL and dispatch. They are all well underway. 2) On December 5, he attended a municipal law seminar in Columbus. 3) On December 9, he responded to an inquiry from a member of Council regarding potential claims against the former Service Director. 4) On December 9, he attended a directors' meeting. 5) On December 10, he issued a letter to Law Director Ebert from Bay Village regarding the regional dispatch COG project. 6) December 12, the Board of Control awarded a contract to BFI which will provide significant savings to the city of about $168,000. 7) Today he and Human Resources Director Copeland attended a meeting at the Cleveland Foundation regarding an effort by Special Children First to obtain grants, a project the city has supported. 8) A happy, healthy and peaceful holiday season to everyone. Councilman Gareau asked for clarification on the savings from the BFI contract. Finance Director Copfer answered that the savings on the base bid for the two-day service garbage and recycling collection was about $50,000 to $60,000. In addition, the city chose not to include Yazd waste pick-up and will handle it in another manner. That saved 82 cents a household, which is about $106,000. Councilman Miller asked for an explanation as to how the yazd waste was to be collected. Mayor Musial answered that the city is looking to do that collection by utilizing city personnel. By purchasing three vacuum units for about $70,000 and using city personnel and seasonal help, the city should be saving an additional $80,000 Service Director Driscoll further explained that there are three heavy months every year for yard waste-April, May and June when people are cleaning up their yards. The city determined that $106,000 could be saved each year by eliminating this separate yard waste collection because the company has been running the trucks all year and picking up very little for nine months out of the year. The yard waste will still be picked up as it has been by the same contractor, but it will be co-mingled with the regular trash and disposed of at the same site. BFI has noted that it is their option, if it's easier and more effective for them to use a separate truck to pick up these items and if the items continue to be bundled in the fashion they have been bundled, there may be times when they choose to pick that material up separately and dispose of it at a recycling dump. It is to their benefit to use a sepazate recycling area as that will extend the life of their trash landfill. There are two parts to the yard waste recycle program that we have been doing all along. One is the in-house chipping of brush and limbs. The other is a separate private contract that we have been doing for leaf collection, which was recently completed for this year with 16,500 cubic yards of leaves being picked up. The city could save money if we were to purchase the equipment and use our own crews to pick up the leaves, put them at our own site and process the leaves. The costs are being evaluated, and it looks very promising. When a final decision is made, it will be presented to City Council with the budget. Yard waste in the form of grass clippings that are normally either bagged or barreled will continue to be picked up by BFI as it has been in the past. 2